The Peruvian natives have finally managed to stop oil exploration on their lands. The sentence was issued by the judges of the Institute of Legal Defense (IDL) after a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East.

The natives fought for a long time against mining and oil projects and, in this case, asked the government to suspend authorizations that would allow the Perupetro company to explore their lands in the Loreto region, in the Peruvian northern Amazon.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru and the Perupetro company had in fact planned to develop oil areas within the Sierra del Divisor national park, home to indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation, recognized by the government as of 2018 .

The new project would have threatened the uncontacted communities, destroying the sources of their precious rivers, essential for the survival of the tribes.

This is no small thing: as early as 2014, water sources were irreparably contaminated as the result of an oil spill from the Perupetro company’s plants. Since then, the lives of the indigenous people of the Peruvian northern Amazon are no longer the same.

Further oil exploration projects could lead to new accidents, endangering the lives of the numerous tribes that inhabit the area.

With the recent ruling, the judges have finally decreed that the government will have to exclude the Amazon area from any new form of oil exploration and exploitation. Not only that: the Peruvian government will have to provide greater protection for the region, which was declared a protected area in 2015.

“This ruling is historic because it is the first in favor of indigenous people in voluntary isolation against oil companies. Almost 98% of the indigenous territory in voluntary isolation is located above three batches of oil, “said Maritza Quispe, IDL’s lawyer.